Booklet launch: Black and Blue: Never Again
Speech by Elizabeth Broderick
Sex Discrimination
Commissioner and Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination
Palm Meadows Club House, Palm Meadows Drive, Carrara, Queensland
25 November 2010
I want to begin by acknowledging that we are gathered here today on the traditional land of the Kombumerri people. I pay my deepest respects to their elders both past and present.
Thank you to Donna Justo from the Domestic Violence Crisis Centre, for your kind introduction.
I want to acknowledge Rosemary Larkin, the manager of Mcleod accommodation services, Marica Ristic and all the wonderful staff, the staff of the Domestic Violence Prevention Centre, the Gold Coast Multicultural Families Organisation and Qld Dept. of Communities. I know there are many people in this room who support women and children every day. You perform some of the most valuable and unrecognised work in this country and I want to acknowledge the contribution you make to ending violence against women. On behalf of all Australians, I want to thank you.
I also acknowledge Brian Sullivan who is here as a White Ribbon Day Ambassador. Today is White Ribbon Day. Across the country today thousands of Australian men have stood up and taken an oath – that they will not commit or condone violence.
But most importantly I want to acknowledge, congratulate and applaud the 22 women who were interviewed as part of this project and the six women who have told their stories in the book Black and Blue: Never Again. They are the stars. They are the experts. Without them we wouldn’t be here today.
So to Zhang, Charuni, Yelena, Natasha, Zena and Mary – thank you. Thank you for your courage, for caring enough to speak out, for showing others that change is possible and for inspiring us all to action.
I came into my role as Sex Discrimination Commissioner almost 3 years ago. Since then I have met many inspiring and progressive women and men all around Australia, and perhaps none have been more progressive and responsive than in the women’s sector in Queensland.
Last year, the Macleod refuge realised that more than half the women and children using their service over the previous 12 months were from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
The Macleod refuge knew that no single strategy or response would suit every single woman who came through the door and they could see that women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds were in a particularly vulnerable position after leaving an abusive partner and often least able to access support services.
So, in January 2010, the Macleod refuge received funding from the Queensland Department of Communities to undertake a 12 month multicultural project. In partnership with the Gold Coast Multicultural Families Organisation and the Domestic Violence Prevention Centre, Macleod wanted to offer women additional practical and emotional support after they left the refuge. We all know how important a program like this must be. The refuge provides a safe and peaceful haven to escape abuse, but rebuilding your life outside the refuge takes immense and ongoing courage and support. By running a support program, not only do the women become familiar with services to support them and their children but they also build up their own informal support networks. As all of us who have gone through significant and difficult periods in our lives know, it is these informal support networks – our friends, people who can empathise and understand our experiences – that are crucial to surviving.
But Macleod also saw the project as an opportunity to evaluate their own service – to hear directly from women about the support they were getting from the refuge. Marica, the woman who ran the project, met informally with women who had used the service to get some feedback on how it could be improved. As Rosemary Larkin, the Manager of the Macleod refuge told me, it wasn’t long before they realised the experiences they were hearing were bigger than any one person so they encouraged the women to write their stories down.
And that’s how Black and Blue: Never Again became a reality.
Black and Blue brings together the stories of six women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds who escaped domestic violence. Told in their own words, these are six of the most articulate and insightful accounts of domestic violence that I have ever read.
I want to acknowledge again the courage of the six women – Zhang, Charuni, Yelena, Natasha, Zena and Mary in sharing their stories.
It fills me with such hope that Mary can now say “life is good. It is getting better every day.” With advocates like these women in our community we move closer to ensuring that every woman in a similar situation gets the support she needs.
The six stories which are collected in Black and Blue give us an insight into the shared experiences of domestic and family violence, which continues to affect an unacceptable number of women in Australia.
But most importantly the voices of these women reveal the specific barriers which women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds face. All the women who were interviewed for the booklet said that they were simply unaware that support services such as Macleod existed. This booklet will become a way for them to reach out and share this information with other women who may be in the same position.
There are some excellent lessons that we must all take away from the book.
Firstly, violence against women is not a problem which is specific to any race, religion or culture. In Australia, one in every three women has experienced physical violence since the age of 18.[1] Nearly one in five Australian women has experienced sexual violence since the age of 15.[2]
Secondly, the majority of women who experience family and domestic violence do not seek formal support. In fact, the Australian component of the International Violence against Women Survey, which was carried out by the Australian Institute of Criminology, suggests that roughly four out of five women who experience intimate partner violence do not seek assistance from a specialised agency following their most recent experience of violence.[3]
Thirdly, there are many reasons that prevent women from all cultural backgrounds from seeking assistance. For some women, leaving a violent relationship propels them, and their children, into homelessness.
Charuni grew up in Africa and she and her husband came to Australia as refugees. As she said, “My hope was that once we are in Australia, safe and sound, that my husband will change his behaviour. Unfortunately the abuse continued. It even got worse [then]I gave birth to a boy and a girl and it was even more difficult for me to leave.”
And finally, a perception that domestic violence is a private matter which should be dealt with within in the family is a persistent obstacle to women seeking assistance. As Zena, who migrated to Australia with her husband explained, “from a young age I was taught to “wash our linen in our own home” and that is the main reason that I remained silent about what was going on in my house.”
The book outlines the additional obstacles that many women who have come to Australia from elsewhere experience. They often have not had the opportunity to learn the systems of their new home and can be vulnerable to the controlling behavior which is often a part of abusive relationships. As Zena reported, “Beginning life in Australia was a very difficult experience for me. I spoke limited English and I had no friends to help me. My husband was the one communicating with the outside world. He took care of housing, applying for Centrelink payment and Medicare. He chose our friends.”
Charuni felt she would have been more confident if she was living in a system and community she knew and understood. “If I was with my family in Africa, I would have left long time ago. Here, I was too fearful to stay and too fearful to leave, as I wasn’t sure what support I would be offered.”
Zhang, who came to Australia to be with her Australian husband, was anxious about what to expect. “At the time on the TV they were splashing the news about the Refugee camps and people living behind the wires. With my limited English I was not able to tell the difference between the Refuge and refugees and therefore I kind of expected to be placed in a jail like place.” I am so glad that her experience was so far from what she expected. As she reported, “When I came to the Refuge my support worker showed me around my unit: beside all the basic toiletries, clean change of clothes, there was even a lipstick and a nice body moisturiser in the bathroom. I could still hear her soothing reassuring voice telling me that I will be O.K.” When she told her mother that she been given some where to stay and something to eat, for free, her mother didn’t believe her.
Zena was also incredulous about the support available to her. As she writes, “You know I often think of all the opportunities that I have in this country; I look at my Medicare card, my Health Care Card, my TAFE student card and I think how blessed I am to be looked after. I was supported by so many services, including Domestic Violence Prevention Centre Gold Coast, Homelessness services, counselling and health support services. Australian Government helped me to get a lawyer from the Legal Aid Queensland. This is a free legal service. Isn’t that amazing?”
There is also a common thread which runs through all these women’s stories which I was particularly struck by. It was Natasha, who expressed it so simply, “Here I have no family to support and comfort me.”
When I think about the support and the comfort which my family and my friends have provided me in my darkest moments it is me that is incredulous – that these women were able to leave their homes, some in the middle of the night, with nothing, I am struck by their courage, tenacity and capacity for hope.
The women are powerful advocates. This booklet will become a way for them to reach out and share vital information with other women who may be in the same position. For while the booklet portrays six inspiring women, it also provides information about domestic and family violence and, importantly, the services which exist to support women have experienced it. Support services such as the Macleod refuge, the Multicultural Families Organisation and the Domestic Violence Prevention Centre have the potential to change women’s lives. For women who leave violent relationships, there are some days that are more difficult than others. But as Zhang tells us in her account of her experience, “You only need one person to believe in you...Keep fighting, keep walking and your support worker will be walking beside you and she will hold you if you are down.”
Black and Blue will be distributed widely through services, doctors’ surgeries, waiting rooms where women might pick them, recognise themselves in some of the stories and contact one of the support services listed.
As the women themselves know, this is the first step. As Yelena acknowledges, “While there are no words that could explain how much I appreciate the support that I was offered at the Refuge, there is still a long road in front of me. I need to restore feelings of dignity and pride and to learn to trust again.”
Services like the Macleod refuge are making an invaluable contribution to ensuring as many women as possible are able to access their support. I am hopeful – as I am sure we all are – that Macleod will be able to secure the resources to continue their multicultural (wo)mentoring project into the future.
I want to also take this opportunity to recognise the support the Gold Coast community has offered Macleod in its work. When Macleod was desperate to renovate, they gathered support from across their community. People donated their time, their expertise, their goods, their services. Corporates like GHD stepped up to the plate and offered funding.
I have seen the refuge since its transformation and I can tell you the result is a beautiful, peaceful and healing environment. It embodies the dignity and respect that every person who has experienced violence deserves.
So again, I want to recognise the invaluable work of the Macleod refuge and celebrate the courage and eloquence of the women profiled in Black and Blue.
I would like to leave the closing words to Charuni, who said, when reflecting on her experiences, “I have faced and overcome many challenges in the past. I would like to believe that they made me stronger. As for the future, I hope that there will be more opportunities and fewer challenges.” We are lucky to have women of such courage and optimism amongst us. Thank you for sharing your stories and congratulations on the publication of Black and Blue: Never Again.
[1] Australian Bureau of
Statistics, (ABS), Personal Safety, Australia, 2005 (Reissue), Catalogue
No. 4906.0 (2006), p 7.
[2] ABS,
above
[3] J Mouzos & T Makkai, Women’s Experiences of Male Violence: Findings from the Australian
Component of the International Violence against Women Survey (IVAWS) (2004),
Australian Institute of Criminology, Research and Public Policy Series, No. 56,
p 100
